Need a supercomputer in your pocket? Android can help

Just one more thing to add to the list of what makes Android so awesome. Scientists performing complex calculations often need to book time on a supercomputer to solve problems for their research. The problem with this is that time on a supercomputer has to be scheduled in advance, and it can be expensive. Not only that, but they're not portable, so if the researcher is in a remote location, he or she may not be able to quickly enter the data for a calculation.

Enter Android. Some of these newer smartphones can be powerful enough to quickly solve complex problems. Of course it'll be many years before we have the power of a supercomputer in our pockets, but with the help of a supercomputer a model can be generated that allows a handheld computer to come close enough to the answer a supercomputer would give to be useful to the researcher. The details are a little bit over my head, but it just goes to show you that Android as a computing platform is as amazing as it is a smartphone platform. [Wired]